Henrik

Österblom

PhD

Professor

+46 737 078 816

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Profile summary

  • Anthropocene
  • Biosphere stewardship
  • Co-production
  • Human cooperation
  • Keystone actors

Henrik Österblom works with scientists from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, private sector change-makers, artists, museums, and birds.

Österblom is a natural scientist interested in sustainability who has studied transnational corporations, international relations, ocean ecosystems and governance, human behaviour, equity, and human cooperation.

He is presently engaged in three projects, conceptually embracing: 1) Wishful thinking 2016-2026 (exploring if scientists can support transformation of the global seafood industry in one decade), 2) A pilot project 1998-ongoing (25+ years of testing approaches to understand seabirds at Stora Karlsö), 3) A useless project 2014-ongoing (collaboration with Chilean artists in the desert and mountains of Chile).

Österblom has a background in behavioural ecology from Uppsala University and a PhD in marine ecology from Stockholm University. He worked for five years for the Swedish government as policy advisor. I have been a visiting scientist at University of British Colombia, University of Tasmania and Tokyo University. I have been visiting professor to Tokyo University and am presently adjunct professor to the University of Tasmania.

  • Editor Testing I, II (Ambio) 2025–
  • Scientific Advisor, RIKEN Institute 2023–
  • Chair, Natural Capital Partnership Committee, Stanford University 2022–
  • Chairman, SeaBOS Fundraising Foundation 2019–
  • Board Member, Race for the Baltic Fundraising Foundation 2018–

Awards and achievements

  • Sweden Impact Award (2017) High-level dialogue with private sector “keystone actors” in the seafood industry. AESIS.
  • The Askö Young Scientist Award, Stockholm University (2011)

Supervision

Frida Bengtsson, PhD, Main supervisor

Key publications

 

Österblom, H., Gazitúa, F., Leible, A. (2023) To split a stone. Soc. 28 (3): 11

Österblom, H. (2023) The Sounds of Science – Orchestrating stewardship in the Seafood industry. Academic Press.

Österblom, H., Folke, C., Rocha, J., Bebbington, J., Blasiak, R., Jouffray, J.-B., Selig, E. R., Wabnitz, C.C.C., Bengtsson, F., Crona, B., Gupta, R., Henriksson, P. J. G., Johansson, K.A., Merrie, A., Nakayama, S., Ortuño Crespo, G., Rockström, J., Schultz, L., Sobkowiak, M., Søgaard Jørgensen, P., Spijkers, J., Troell, M., Villarubia-Gómez, P., Lubchenco, J. (2022) Scientific mobilization of keystone actors for biosphere stewardship. Scientific Reports 12: 3802

Paasche, Ø., Österblom, H. (2019) Unsustainable Science. One Earth 1(1): 39-42 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2019.08.011

Österblom H. (2019) The World is Yours. The Lancet 391: 528-529 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32107-X

Publications by Österblom, Henrik